In your opinion what were the best stretch of years to be a Mobile DJ? Or are we in them presently?

I went full time in 1985,,, but I'd been DJing part time before that,,, so for the years from 1985 - 1995 were the best.

I was a school jock then, making an easy $800 for a 2 or 3 hour "normal" dance, $1500 - $2000 for prom or homecoming... Most schools were having between 5 -9 dances a year and the DJ was the guy with the new music. We set trends and got paid well for it.

Big sound, big lights, and the students mostly respected us and would dance to a variety of music.

December was big time holiday parties and working 20 days in December was the norm.

THOSE were the days!

I feel like we set trends still today... but the trends are more like think bigger and different than the avg. I get emails from couples asking me all the time, how can we do something unique for our intros (dancing on the clouds is a popular item), or with photobooths I was one of the first that added the text feature.

All I keep noticing though is how MUCH people were working... I’d think the ability to work less and make equal or more is rather advantageous.

Since I am shuffling off to the sunset, I pick and choose how much I want to work...but then I'm retired and this has become more of a hobby now. I still can't get the excitement of getting people up to dance and keeping them on the dance floor. What's still remarkable is when you are about to play a certain song and somebody comes up and asks for the same song and just as the words come out of their mouth that exact same song begins playing. They just say "never mind" and walk away with a smile. You know you're in the Zone.

Pro brought up chocolate fountains which were another add on for a while, but that fad only lasted so long. Also in the early '90s karaoke was huge because it was new. I'm sure that any DJs that bought a karaoke machine and discs were making tons of cash for a few years.

At some point DJs also became wedding coordinators to a degree which doesn't have anything to do with spinning music. Someone got the idea to start doing that and eventually every DJ was expected to do the same. That is kind of an add on as a service offered. MCs have also been add ons for a long time which most DJs do as a second duty. In a way, DJs have had to do more work to get the same amount that they were getting in the past. There was a time when one could be just a DJ and still get plenty of work.

It's true that there are more things to add on now days. My point is there have been other add ons in the past that eventually became passe or decreased in value in most markets.

I had the most fun from 85-2000 4-6 nights a week Bar’s clubs and being single the DJ is always popular, I made the most money between 2007 and now, high end gigs less work more money per gig

For me, from 1986 to 2002 were my golden times, knocking down over six digits annual income as a solo op. Yes, I worked my butt off, taking two forced weekends a year for much needed vacations. The sacrifices were great as were the rewards.

Make great money nowadays is doable albeit more difficult. The biggest question remains sustaining it long enough to make it a career long sole income profession from which one may retire. There have been dozens of top dollar per event DJs/entertainers over the last 10 15 years that would qualify for episodes of Where Are They Now.

While DJ Taso is knocking them dead at the moment, and if this is what he considers as his Golden Years, be financially smart in prepping this career for 20 years from now.

And the battle cry of "earn more while working less" is devastatingly lined with falsehoods and booby traps. Watch you butt.

For me, it was mid-80's to early 90's.
I had just started at the multi op....and was a total newbie.
But the boss provided everything I needed, including a crew to setup and breakdown.
I was this young pup in my 20's with long hair...
and I loved the reaction from the older crowd when they realized I was a huge fan of the oldies.
(oldies at that time were 50's and 60')
Clients would not micro-manage. They hired me to do the job, and they just enjoyed themselves.
Politics and religion were left out of the conversations.
The laws for alcohol were much more relaxed, and people weren't "sue happy".
The only thing that time period lacked was technology.
The actual job of making music come out of speakers wasn't as easy...
but what did we know?
We just made the most out of what was available to us.

Cap Capello said:

While DJ Taso is knocking them dead at the moment, and if this is what he considers as his Golden Years, be financially smart in prepping this career for 20 years from now.

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I have one major concern for Taso. Yes he is young, handsome and healthy, but that last one could change in an instant.

It happened to me back on 8-25-2005 and everything changed. Thankfully, I had enough savings to get through the period where my income was next to nothing.

Plus my DJ income was only about 20% of my total income.

It took years to build that nest egg and only one year to see a good chunk used up.

Taso, I truly hope you have a contingency plan for your company in the event should something happen to you.

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer. I'm normally a Hope dealer, but this is a teaching moment.

Ausumm said:

I was this young pup in my 20's with long hair...

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And not much has changed!

djtaso said:

I feel like we set trends still today... but the trends are more like think bigger and different than the avg. I get emails from couples asking me all the time, how can we do something unique for our intros (dancing on the clouds is a popular item), or with photobooths I was one of the first that added the text feature.

All I keep noticing though is how MUCH people were working... I’d think the ability to work less and make equal or more is rather advantageous.

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I am making more money per event now, but a lot fewer events. Some of that has to do with my age, but a lot has to do with the fact that there are so many DJs out there now and the number of events has dwindled.

Back in that hay-day I was making as a single system operator between 80 and $90,000 a year, one year I even broke $100,000.

I'm not really an "add-on" guy... yes I have karaoke and some uplights, but I don't do photo booths and I am to lazy to spend hours writing love stories and formal intros and all that. To me, I'd rather spend time with the wife and on the golf course. Those guys that make a crapload at weddings, are doing a crapload and are spending crapload of hours on each wedding.... Not me, not for me. It's okay for them. Randy Bartlett is a close personal friend and we have talked about this many times, it's great for him but just not for me.

And listen to Cap and Joe Martin. Plan for the future, I didn't and believe me, you do not want to be in my shoes when you are my age!

Taso made some Interesting points. DJs today can have many more things to offer to clients then in the past. That can be a good or bad thing.

It can be bad for those who don't offer frills. That can limit them as to how much they can get paid. So to get paid a good amount (What that is depends on your definition of good pay) may require one to work extra hard at selling themselves.

He did say that you really need to stand out to get paid nicely. Especially since the invention of the computer DJ. It has more people becoming a DJ and to the people just at an event we're working look super easy what we do.

As for the frills thingsto offer to clients that depends on if you can afford to buy such things or rent those items. The next big step is not just having those things but knowing how to sell those things to clients. Of course you're not going to get every client to buy those things. You just need a good percentage being sold at a price making it worth the investment.

To the few that have referenced me on certain topics... to quickly address them. I personally am well aware of 2 things... 1 that anything can happen to anyone at any time and 2 I can't do this forever, and that with age, business will be affected. The first part I don't let get to me... if that was the case, I'd never get into this having that fear. The second part is one that is an obvious but can be prepared for. Taking care of your body is an important item, and I do my best physically to do so with exercise and somewhat of a diet. The other part is... saving/investing. I have been doing this for many many years now... putting a portion of my income aside, investing in my 401k and other various investments for almost a decade now.

I won't talk about the specific numbers of what I make in terms of gross or net profits, but if people pick up on the little bits and pieces of what I say on here about the amounts of events I do and the avg price per event, it'd be hard to imagine a single op coming close to those numbers in any other time period. Even if they worked double the events I can't see it being possible as thats working nearly every other day. This is why I truly believe that no other time period allowed such opportunities. Yes there were chocolate fountains and such... but I literally have a portfolio of nearly 20 items that can be added... I just booked a sweet 16 with 9 options over the weekend. Name me another time frame when something like that was common. What's more interesting in my opinion, is that this can be done as a single op now... in the past... at least around here... it was only multi ops that stood out and had all these options.

Chuck mentioned wanting to spend time with wife and on the golf course... so do I (although I prefer other things besides golf lol). That was why when I decided to go full time in 2012, I knew that I never wanted to be a dj doing 100+ events a year, and found 70 to be the sweet spot, where I could work enough without getting burned out, make enough on my avg booking price, and most importantly, have enough exposure to allow the word of mouth to continue. This is a model that many photographers follow. If you look at many of the high end photogs they'll tell you they do between 40 and 60 events a year... but they charge $4k+ and event. I am fortunate enough to control my schedule, and this summer I took off 7 consecutive weeks (all of july and half of august). Whats funny is, even by doing that, I am still having a record breaking year. I think I have more flexibility than ever before. In regards to spending more time per event... I can't say the add ons are making me spend more time per event. I suppose if you count the 30 min it takes round trip to pick up co2, or the 10 min to make a photo booth strip or the 1 hr for a video montage... then yeah maybe an extra hour or 2 per party... but I still show up 3 hrs prior to the event wether its a wedding or a backyard birthday party if I were to do one. There is more work AT the event, but that's what a crew is for. FYI I don't even know what a love story even is, so I can't relate.

MIXMASTERMACHOM said:

Taso made some Interesting points. DJs today can have many more things to offer to clients then in the past. That can be a good or bad thing.

It can be bad for those who don't offer frills. That can limit them as to how much they can get paid. So to get paid a good amount (What that is depends on your definition of good pay) may require one to work extra hard at selling themselves.

He did say that you really need to stand out to get paid nicely. Especially since the invention of the computer DJ. It has more people becoming a DJ and to the people just at an event we're working look super easy what we do.

As for the frills thingsto offer to clients that depends on if you can afford to buy such things or rent those items. The next big step is not just having those things but knowing how to sell those things to clients. Of course you're not going to get every client to buy those things. You just need a good percentage being sold at a price making it worth the investment.

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This whole concept you mentioned above is why I think dj's are the worst business people. They don't know how to market, many think it's a race to the bottom pricing wise, they don't know when to take risks and invest in something, or at least rent, and they don't know how to sell... especially in this industry where it's very emotion based.

My best years were 2011-2015 when I added up-lighting and monogram projection and stayed primarily with weddings and receptions with a few major military events tossed in the mix. I became more Digital with less and less CD backup. In 2015 no longer carried CDs as backup...second laptop as backup.

For me, these last three years have been the best stretch... because I've only been at it for these last three years.[emoji1] I wish I had started sooner. I had digital music long before most people, I just never thought about getting a PA system and DJing with it until I started looking for something I'd like to do after I retired. The current technology certainly made it easier for me, but I think I could have combined my computer know-how with the audio technology of 20 years ago, and might have been a trend setter???[emoji1]


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they don't know when to take risks and invest in something, or at least rent, and they don't know how to sell... especially in this industry where it's very emotion based.

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Selling and marketing have absolutely become a survival necessity in what previously was a talent based profession where advertising media was basically limited to yellow pages, newspapers. and one or two bridal shows a year. Almost every call from folks ended with "where can we come see you play?", meaning what you do as a DJ was to be evaluated live in real time.

This is where, for those like me who are not SEO, web design, video development, social media (and so on) savvy, yet a talented skilled DJ, to take those rose colored glasses off regarding "working less making more" rubbish. It also has little to do with age if one maintains their physical appearance, youthful performance excitement, and face-to-face personal skills.